Easycar - Service Marketing

SUMMARY

The easyCar case is about a car rental service that bases itself on low prices/no frills, which opened its first location in London on 20 April 2000 under the name easyRentacar. EasyCar is a member of the easyGroup family of companies founded by the flamboyant Greek entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou. EasyCar located its facilities primarily near bus and train stations in the major European cities, seeking out sites that offered lower lease costs. “The physical facilities at all locations were kept to a minimum. In many locations, easyCar leased space in an existing parking garage. Employees worked out of a small, self-contained cubicle within the garage.” Stelios planned for an IPO in the second half of 2004, and was growing the company quite rapidly in preparation. EasyCar competes mainly in Western Europe where there are many companies, but only a few hold dominant positions (Avis, Europcar, and Hertz). Overall, the rental car market was composed of two broad segments: a business segment and a tourist/leisure segment. EasyCar has faced criticism/legal action from consumers and government agencies alike for a number of their practices and policies.

QUESTIONS

1. Intangibility – In the car rental industry there are a number of tangible aspects of the service: the car, the facility, the website, the advertisements, etc. Since the whole idea of renting a car to someone is providing them with a vehicle for a predetermined amount of time, and the car is very tangible, I would say that this type of service would rank very high in tangibility compared to other services. However there are intangible elements of this service and it is best compared to a restaurant that you return the food after you’re done. You deal with some sort of server to receive a product, and have expectations of the server and the product.

Heterogeneity – Like many other services, the car rental industry has some opportunities for heterogeneity. Generally you have to deal with...